


achilles heel

by Areiton



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: (sorta) - Freeform, Canon Compliant, Character Study, Getting Together, Grief/Mourning, M/M, POV Bucky Barnes, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Protective Sam Wilson, Sam Wilson Is a Good Bro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 13:22:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29279142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Areiton/pseuds/Areiton
Summary: He had been Steve’s Achilles heel--the weak spot that shattered under pressure, the only one Steve ever showed the world.And maybe that’s why--he learned from Steve, learned how to guard what was precious.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Sam Wilson
Comments: 13
Kudos: 125





	achilles heel

**Author's Note:**

> I had feels after the trailer for The Falcon & the Winter Soldier.

He had been Steve’s Achilles heel--the weak spot that shattered under pressure, the only one Steve ever showed the world. 

And maybe that’s why--he learned from Steve, learned how to guard what was precious. Steve guarded Tony ferociously, tore them apart to keep him safe, and Bucky can’t quite shake that. 

~*~ 

The whole world is watching them, watching Sam, the man Captain America chose to carry his legacy, watching Bucky, the one-time assassin that Steve Rogers tore the Avengers apart for. 

The whole world was watching them, waiting for them to fail. 

The whole world was watching them, and he wanted nothing more than to keep  _ him  _ safe. 

~*~ 

They fight. 

They fight each other and they fight the world that wants to take Steve’s gift from Sam, they fight Zemo when he raises his dirty head from the ground. They fight villains and the government, and they fight each other. 

And when it’s done. 

They go home. 

~*~ 

It’s Sam’s idea. He held himself together, in those first few weeks, when Steve was here and not, when his best friend looked at him with familiar eyes in an unfamiliar face and he realized that as much as Steve loved him--brotherhood wasn’t enough. 

He held himself together, until the funeral. It came fast, the end. He faded quick, almost like he wanted to, and all the time he was back, old from a life lived without Bucky--he never spoke of it. 

And then he was gone and Bucky was alone, except--except he wasn’t because there was Sam, irritating and inevitable, dragging him out of bed to run, and heckling him until he cut his hair, dragging him out to get new clothes and when the dust had settled--dragging him home with him. 

It’s his mama’s house, but it’s empty while she helps Sam’s sister get to rights after the Blip and Bucky doesn’t want to think about that, about the woman Sam talks about so fondly, alone for five years. 

It’s Sam’s idea, them living together, and Bucky thinks maybe it’s just practical, maybe Sam’s just keeping him close because that’s what you do when you’ve got an unstable super solider with homicidal tendencies. 

But there’s the food Sam cooks for him. There’s the way Sam lingers in the evening, on the porch. There’s the grief in Sam’s eyes, when he finds Bucky after a nightmare. There’s the way he wipes his eyes, wet rimmed and red, and smiles at Bucky. 

He thinks, sometimes, that Sam saved him, because he had to, but there’s this--

They’re saving each other. 

~*~ 

They fight, when they’re out in the world, and SWORD sits them down with a therapist, because they fight on comms and they fight in mission briefings and they fight during training. 

But when they’re home. 

When they’re home and the world is far away, beyond the swampy trees and green grass and endless sky--they never fight. 

They move around each other with an ease that makes him breathless, a kind of effortless familiarity with each other that he only had with Steve, and that--that was like living with another piece of himself, so familiar and fluid it was like breathing. 

Sam--Sam is different. Sam is lovely and beautiful, and he smiles at him and it makes Bucky ache, a sharp wanting thing. He needles him and it makes Bucky want to snarl and drag him close and kiss him until the lines blur, until there is no way to tell where one ends and the other begins. 

He doesn’t know how to keep Sam safe, not when he’s close. 

~*~ 

Sam is brave. 

Sam brings him to life, when Steve dies. 

Sam brings him home, when his is gone. 

Sam kisses him, when Bucky would run. 

Sam kisses him and he laughs, when Bucky surges up against him, licks into his mouth and bites at his lips, and it’s like fighting, fucking him is like fighting, but it’s different, too, and precious, he’s  _ precious _ , cradled in Bucky’s arms, in the bed and the home that Sam gave him. 

~*~ 

He was Steve’s Achilles heel-the weak spot that shattered under pressure, the only one Steve ever showed the world.

Sam is his, and they fight. 

They fight the world and for the world, they fight each other and villains and heroes. 

He learned from his brother, after all--and he keeps Sam safe and never shows the world how precious he truly is. 

And when the fighting is done, he takes Sam’s hand, and lets him lead them home. 


End file.
